Fitzgerald
Tender is the Night (1934)
Internet Resources
F.Scott Fitzgerald Centenary Home Page -- the University of South Carolina's extensive website, including images of many original Fitzgerald manuscripts and other items from the Matthew Bruccoli Collection at the Thomas Cooper Library.
The F. Scott Fitzgerald Society Home Page -- the official scholarly organization devoted to studies of the life and work of the author.
F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Fitzgerald background -- a visually appealing site that chronicles the ups and downs of the Fitzgerald marriage
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Fitzgerald's last completed novel took him more than nine years to conceive, plan, write -- and almost endlessly revise: there are at least seventeen complete drafts of the book. Fitzgerald was never satisfied with the novel, even when it was finally published. Second-guessing his decision to present the narrative in a non-linear fashion, with flashbacks, he revamped the structure of the book but died before he was able to republish it in a new edition. In 1951 the literary critic Malcolm Cowley, however, brought out what he called the "Author's Final Version." The original text, however, is most commonly available today.
Plan for the third version of Tender is the Night, with the working title, "The Drunkard's Holiday." (Princeton University Library)
Chronologies for the Divers (Princeton Univ. Library)
Fitzgerald's chart comparing the case histories of his wife and Nicole (Princeton Univ. Library)
La Paix, near Rodgers' Forge, Towson, Maryland, where in November 1933 Fitzgerald completed Tender is the Night. He rented the house in order to be near Zelda, his wife, while she was at Johns Hopkins Hospital and at the Phipps Clinic. The fifteen-room house was on the Turnbull estate. Later, Andrew Turnbull, who knew Fitzgerald while growing up, would write the first authorized biography of the novelist.
Fitzgerald's ledger shows his record of income for the year he completed Tender is the Night, when his total book roalties were $30. Between 1927 and 1933 he received some $16,000 in advances from Scribners. The fourth column shows the 10% fee due his agent, Harold Ober, for each work sold.
First page of the "Diver" typescript. (Princeton University Library)
